thank you. >> i'm sure it's going to continue to be a nightmare on the roads because it's wet and slick, tom. yeah, i'm veronica johnson in for tom kierein this morning. and -- >> i know! >> great to have you with me. >> how did you not get the day snauf. >> are they in con kuhn sokocon? the temperatures in the low fourth and a chill in the air -- low 40s and a chill in the air. rain, wind, what month is this again? check the calendar. >> supposed to be april. >> feels like march or maybe february. it's crazy. 43 at reagan national. wind out of the west at 15 miles per hour, occasionally gusting to 30 miles per hour. look at the rain we've had since yesterday morning. almost two inches in southern maryland. hollywood, st. mary's county, gaithersburg, .73 inch. andrews air force base, 1.28, fairfax, the district of

columbia, the heavier rains south and east of washington. temperatures in the upper 30s in northern montgomery county, frederick county, into western maryland. and right now, it is snowing. see this little white patch? it's april 23rd for crying out loud. it's snowing in allegheny and garrett counties. western allegheny and garrett counties. this is going to be with us off and on throughout the day. the rain and a look at snow, winter storm warnings, they could get a foot of heavy, wet snow in western maryland. trees with leaves on, we could have power outages and tree limbs coming down there. and i'll show you the forecast for this monday ahead, the next 12 hours in ten minutes. angie? >> all right. thank you. continuing breaking news coverage in florida. george zimmerman is free on bond this morning. he was released from jail just after posting a $150,000 bond. let's go straight to jay gray. he is live in sanford, florida. good morning, what's the latest? >> reporter: good morning, angie. the waiting game ended

overnight, as you talk about. george zimmerman posting that $150,000 bond and walking out of the seminole county justice center into a waiting suv. he carried with him only a brown paper bag, but we are told by sheriff's deputies what we could not see was the gm monitoring brace -- gps monitoring bracelets he had been fitteded with. we're told the system will work anywhere in the united states. his attorneys are concerned about his safety now that he's been released, and they had a half dozen places where they felt like he could secretly go and be safe. obviously they're not going to divulge where any of those places are or where he's gone since he left the jail. knowing that the gps system works around the entire country, i think it's safe to assume that he will be leaving the state of florida. his attorneys have said repeatedly that they felt like that would probably be their best option. he won't be out. he won't be walking the streets, they say. he will be helping them to craft a defense in this case.

of course, trayvon martin's parents have said repeatedly that they wanted him to stay behind bars. they've been frustrated. they have been emotional, according to their attorney, since the bond hearing when he was granted this $150,000 bond. they had been so vocal prior to his arrest. we have not heard a word from martin's parents since the bond hearing. that's the latest live here in sanford, florida, i'm jay gray, back to you. >> thank you. a case that closely mirrors the trayvon martin case involving a black teenager and two neighborhood watchmen in baltimore goes to trial today. two brothers are accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling a predominantly orthodox jewish neighborhood in 2010. the brothers who are white and jewish are claiming savann inin self-defense. they say the 15-year-old was carrying a nail-studded board when they encountered him. the teen suffered a cut to the head and broken wrist. the brothers face 15 years in prison if convicted.

president obama will announce a plan to impose sanctions against countries who use technology to carry out human rights abuses. he'll make the announcement this morning at the holocaust memorial museum. according to the "washington post," the new executive order comes after countries have jammed cell phones and blocked social media sites as rebels tried to organize demonstrations. new sanctions for that activity could include banning visas and financial restrictions. the president is also expected to announce challenge grants available to companies that create technology to warn citizens and n countries where mass killings occur. there's a new push to broaden the investigation into the secret service scandal. six secret service members and 11 military members are now being investigated. they're accused of hiring prostitutes in colombia before president obama arrived. some members of congress want to know if more agents were involved and if any white house employees played a part in the incident. >> obviously nobody believes that something with 11 or 12

people involved couldn't have happened before. >> six secret service members have already been fired or resigned. new york congressman peter king says he expects several other secret service agents to leave in the near future. today the u.s. marine accused of stabbing another marine to death will be in court. 20-year-old michael poth is charged with second-degree murder. police say he stabbed 23-year-old phillip bouchong along 8th street in northeast, known as barracks row. the pair started fighting when poth made a homophobic report at bouchong. police believe the two did not know each other before the fight. a 28-year-old murder is being thrust back into the courtroom this morning. katherine fuller was beaten, raped, and sodomized in northeast on october 1, 1984. eight teenagers were convicted and sentenced to 35 years to life in prison. today a judge will hear claims

that some of those teens were wrongly convicted. the mid-atlantic innocence project says several of the original witnesses have recanted their testimony. the court will likely hear from possible witnesses who were never questioned after the crime. a maryland minister is continuing to preach despite being ousted from his church and stripped of his membership. paster joe peebles took over jericho city of praise in 2010 after the death of his mother, apostle betty peebles. she and her husband founded the church 40 years ago. it's grown into a massive complex with a school, senior center, and thousands of parishioners. a disagreement with the church's board of trustees led joel peebles' ouster last week. yesterday, hundreds of his supporters worshipped with him in the ballroom at the metro point hotel in new carrollton. >> here we have the opportunity to worship freely. we have no problems. we're expecting god to work out the rest. >> the new church is being

called city of praise. no word on how long they will call the metro point hotel home. it's going to take seven games for the caps to try to keep their playoff run alive. >> he scores! >> the bruins scored the game winner just three minutes into overtime to force the decisive final game back in boston. the caps never led the game but kept fighting to tie the game with big goals from jason chimera and alex ovechkin whose second of the series forced overtime. all six games have been decided by one goal, and three have gone to an extra frame. game seven is wednesday night. >> disappointing, but they're still in it. >> well, i know, wednesday. we've got to get it done, right? >> that's right. the time, 4:37. ahead on "news4 today," the frantic search continues. a look at who is joining the investigation after a young arizona girl vanishes from her bed. plus, ready to make their case. a look at what's at stake as the trial for former presidential

hopeful john edwards gets underway. brace yourself when you step outside this morning. it will feel more like february than april. and breaking news on the beltway, part of the outer loop is closed. weather & traffic on the 1s.

we're staying on top of breaking news on the roads. the outer loop of the beltway in silver spring is closed due to a sirs accident. >> it happened between

colesville road and georgia avenue. news4's tracee wilkins is live on the phone with more on this situation. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the outer loop is a complete mess. they are just beginning to turn vehicles around and get them off of the outer loop. and one of the exits they're using, they're ae allowing folkn to 29, they've got the ramps and detour set up to move traffic off of the beltway. but we -- it must be at least two miles of vehicles backed up on the beltway in where the accident happened. the accident is right in the middle of colesville and georgia avenue. not far from the hospital. that's where it is on the highway. and it involves two tractor-trailers and a car. we have it confirmed from maryland state police that this is a fatal accident. so in addition to the intensities of the crash itself,

there's also an investigation that's going to have to happen. so what's happening now is that all of the cars stuck behind this accident, that's -- the vehicles have to turn around, get off of the beltway, and so you saw some cars and some trucks turned like they were trying to make their way around, but with all of that traffic backed up, this was just nowhere for them to go. it really is a mess on the beltway. folks should avoid the area altogether as they're trying to get cars off the beltway. there's just no telling how long that process is going to take. i would assume a little more than an hour because we're talking about two miles and four lanes of traffic packed with not just cars and trucks but tractor-trailers, 18 wheelers, and a lot of vehicle will have to find their way off of the beltway for now. so just be aware of that as you're making your way this morning. i'm tracee wilkins. and we are live here near the beltway. should be live with pictures for you in a bit. back to you all in the studio. >> all right. thank you.

we are going to check in now with our traffic center. matt with more on how to get around the situation. >> reporter: as you heard, this accident is very serious and delays are growing quickly. one of the best bets, it's not backed all the way to university. you can jump off university to georgia. once you come back down on georgia, jump on the outer loop. it's a ghost town, things are looking great once you pass 97. if you coming down 95 on the northeast side, what you can do is also stick with the icc. take 200 to georgia to bypass the problem. right now, delays coming in prior to 29, 29 to dale to georgia is a good bet, too. back to you both. >> all right. thank you very much. a tough commute out there. >> it sure is. a very cold start. tom, what's up? i had to wear my wool peacoat into work. >> yeah, you need to find the winter coat. it's chilly, wet, and windy on this monday morning. and it is fender-bender weather. all the roads are wet. now

up into pennsylvania, into western new york state. up that way. they could get up to a foot of heavy, wet snow. in the mid 30s out there now. closer to washington, generally low to mid 40s around most of virginia and maryland and the eastern shore and around the bay. here's your day planner. we'll have temperatures by 9:00. still in the 40s. only near 50 around noontime into the afternoon with occasional showers and blustery winds. the chilliest day in over six weeks. sunrise at 6:20. sunset at 7:53. we'll look at a drying pattern for the week and look at the weekend in ten minutes. back to you. >> all right. thank you. looking forward to that. and the time is 4:44. still to come, thrown into the trunk as part of a kidnapping. now, suspects ran into trouble. why they had such a hard time getting away. plus, ready for some relief at the pump? how far you could see gas prices ♪

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sanford. this morning, police are trying to determine why a man opened fire outside a church, killing a pastor's mother. the shooting happened yesterday near denver, colorado. an off-duty police officer shot and killed the gunman. a church spokeswoman says she did not recognize the shooter. she doesn't know why the man shot at church members, and police say there was an argument in the parking lot shortly before the shooting. in the day ahead, an fbi search team from quantico will help find a missing 6-year-old girl in arizona. isabel cellis disappeared from her home in tucson. her parents say they put her to bed friday night and she was gone saturday morning. fbi agents and u.s. marshals are involved in the search. >> we've used just about every resource that we can find to try and help locate isabel. this is to include k-9s and

bloodhounds from the department of corrections. >> police say the family is cooperating in the investigation. officers are interviewing all registered sex offenders in the area. local forensic analysts will examine the latest evidence in the disappearance of etan patz. the 6-year-old who haven't issued from his soho -- who vanished from his soho neighborhood in 2009. k-9s picked up his scent on the street where the family lived. no human remains have been found. agents did recover stranz strands of a hair, piece of paper, and stains on pieces of a wall. the items are being sent to quantico for further analysis. today the jury is expected to be seated in the corruption case of john edwards. prosecutors say the former senator and presidential candidate used nearly $1 million in campaign money to hide pregnant mistress rielle hunter. edwards insists he did not break the law. his defense team argues the

money came from private donations. edwards faces six counts including illegal use of campaign contributions and conspiracy. those charges could bring 30 years in prison and fines of $1.5 million. opening arguments are set to begin today in the retrial of former baseball great roger clemens. clemens is charged with perjury, accused of lying to a congressional committee about using performance enhancing drugs. how much of that testimony the jury will hear is still unknown. last year the government improperly used part of the exchange which led to a mistrial. a man and woman are telling a terrifying story of getting robbed and carjacked in d.c. they were outside a car talking in an alley in columbia heights friday. one victim said two men walked up, told them to get on the ground, then took the car keys and forced them in the trunk. the kidnapping unraveled when the attackers couldn't drive the stick shift so they made the man drive. the male victim says he was forceding to to go to an atm.

with the car in motion and a gun to his head, the man jumped out of the car. >> i didn't care if they was going to shoot or not because i got -- it was my only option, jump out of the car. >> the woman also escaped by unlatching the trunk lock and jumping out. both say they're thankful to be alive but worried about retaliation since the gunman got away with their i.d.'s. a maryland civil rights leader is in trouble with the law. carl snowden is charged with marijuana possession. it happened friday after a car he was in was pulled over for a broken taillight. his attorney says the investigation will show the case is a "nonissue." snowden is the director of the maryland attorney general's office of civil rights. he recently announced he would take a sabbatical to pursue a lawsuit against anne arundel county executive john leopold for allegedly targeting him on a list of political opponents. strong winds and rain put a damp or earth day celebrations in the nation ae's capital. several people put on ponchos and donned rain gear to check

out the earth day concert at the national mall. despite the rain, the band cheap trick played. d.c. mayor vincent gray and the reverend jesse jackson took part in the celebration. people celebrated the environment and spread awareness on how to conserve natural resources. yesterday was the 42nd anniversary of the first earth day. look at the rain out there. i guess if there's any good news, we won't be getting as much as yesterday, right? >> well, >> oh, no. >> let's think about the rest of the week. >> how about that? >> today, another washout like sunday. there's the sky over washington. and there are some of those low clouds zipping on through. soon this will all be a distant memory. but right now, yes, we are dealing with rain. all that area in green is rain that's been rolling through. we've had about an inch and a quarter since this all started. and all day yesterday we had that light rain. we're going to have more off and on through the day and snow. right now, out in western maryland, in western allegheny

county, garrett county, right now they're getting some heavy, wet snow. and all the trees have leaves on them with that heavy, wet snow coming down. they could pick up some power outages there. cumberland, 37. so is hagerstown. no snow there. upper 30s, frederick county, montgomery county, howard county in maryland. and in leesburg, upper 30s. only 37 there, as well as in winchester. so loudoun county, warren, clark, frederick county, virginia, only in the upper 30s. fairfax, southern montgomery, much of prince george's county, the district now, low 40s. much of southern maryland in the mid 40s. up to a foot of snow. this is a winter storm warning zone. all that area in pink. and for the rest of the day today, umbrella day. fender-bender weather for the morning commute. rain off and on. temperatures holding steady in the 40s through 9:00. by noontime, for your lunch hour, too, still rainy and breezy. you'll need the umbrella. temperatures in the upper 40s by noontime. middle of the afternoon mate get up to around 50 or so. late afternoon, back to the mid

40s and some lighter rain. and finally, does look like the rain will be tapering off and ending by tonight and by dawn tomorrow. a chilly start, mid 30s to near 40 starting tuesday morning. partly to mostly cloudy, blustery, cool tomorrow, highs warmer, near 60. even milder with sunshine back on wednesday. the mid 60s, upper 60s, maybe a little more rain on thursday. then as we get into the weekend, highs in the 60s. could get a little more rain on sunday. now with our monday traffic, matt, how's it looking? >> reporter: not real good on the top side of the beltway, tom. at this point, the accident remains. smack dab in the middle between 29 and 97 on the outer loop of the beltway. at this point, what we have is about 21 miles per hour, and that's not actually an optimistic look as you come up on 29. everything remains shut down on that outer loop. and you can see those delays growing. if you can wade through the mess, jump off on university, jump over to georgia. that will put you back on the beltway well past the accident. then you're actually okay once you pass that. things are actually looking good

elsewhere on the beltway. back to you, angie, richard. >> all right, thanks. drivers are finally getting a break at the pump. analysts expect gas prices to drop about a nickel this week. according to aaa, right now, drivers in the district are paying it $4.13 for a gallon of regular. that's about a penny less than saturday. the average is $3.90 in maryland, which is also down about one cent. in virginia, the average actually went up a penny to $3.85. in west virginia, the average is $3.89, down two cents. despite relatively high gas prices, people seem to be in the market to buy a car. auto sales are booming. one dealer described it as phenomenal. analysts say it's not just people looking for fuel efficiency. the economic downturn left older cars on the road. many people kept their cars longer than ten years. now that the economy's improving, consumers are opting for a new ride. >> it tells me that people have gotten immune to the gas prices.

they're used to it, they expect it now. and they are absolutely saying you know what, if i have to come back somewhere else, i'm going to drive what i want to drive. >> auto experts say those in the market to buy might be surprised at affordability these days as well as the money they could get for their trade-in. the time now, 4:55. coming up, their shoe release led to scenes like this at elementary schools across the country. nike -- at malls across the country. niky is planning to cuts down on the craziness. if this soccer ball could

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nike could help avoid frenzy in the future shoe launches that have resulted in long lines and fights over the kicks. a new plan could use social media to have customers rsvp. they would have to follow a certain announcement and carry out a series of steps to reserve a pair. nike's next big launch is the kanye west air easy 2. that's sometime in july. >> some kind of name, huh? congratulations are in order to our own news4 colleague barbara harrison. ♪ >> last night the washington, d.c., hall of fame society honored barbara with its legacy award in communications. every year the society honors washingtonians from various industries who have made

substantial contributions to the community. congratulations to barbara and all of this year's inductees. she does so much with "wednesday's child." that's a small sampling of everything she's done in the community. >> she looked beautiful, too. >> she did. a teenager who lost his home in japan's devastating tsunami now knows one of his prized possessions has survived. >> his soccer ball. drifted across the pacific all the way to alaska. that ball was found about 70 miles off the alaskan coast on middleton islands. one of the first pieces of debris that can betraysed to japan after the tsunami -- be traced to japan after the tsunami in 2011. the couple who found the ball is planning on sending it back to the 16-year-old owner. his name was on the ball. he said he got it as a gift in 2005 when he transferred to another school. >> what are the chances of something like that happening? >> you know what they say, if you throw it and it comes back, that means it's yours, belongs to you, special. >> stay tu